by Alexis Gold
Cameron laughed out loud again.
“A work study program in biology! That’s clever! Can you keep up your classes while you’re doing this?”
She nodded.
“Yeah, I’ll be doing online courses, and Jim is giving me an apartment near the medical center while I do this, so everything is taken care of, and it’s all really handy. Thank you for that, by the way. That makes it easy for me, and actually enables me to do this.”
She sipped her coffee and smiled at him.
“Oh, yeah, of course!” he said, taking a big breath.
“I wanted to take care of everything. You shouldn’t have to do anything or pay for anything. You know, be put out of your way at all. This whole thing is for me, so, of course I’d take care of everything for you.
“As a matter of fact,” he paused and
looked around for a piece of paper, finding one on a table near them and pulling a pen from his jacket pocket,
“here’s my phone number. If you need anything at all, if anything comes up, please give me a call. I’ll take good care of you.” He handed her the paper, smiling at her as he did so.
Delilah shook her head.
“No, Cameron. I really appreciate that, but I’m not supposed to have any contact with you at all. If I do, it could mean I wouldn’t get paid. Jim made that very clear. I shouldn’t take your number. It’s okay, if I need anything, I can call Jim. I’m sure he’d take care of me just fine.”
Cameron stopped for a moment, looking at her, thinking about what she was saying.
“No, really, Delilah, just take it. I’m not going to say anything to Jim if you call me because you need something. It’s fine. You’ll be paid. He’s too worried about everything. You’re giving me a son, seriously, I can’t thank you enough for that, and if you need anything, I really feel like it’s my duty to be there for you and help you out. Really, please take it. It’s the least I can do.”
He held it closer to her.
“Please.”
Delilah looked at the paper skeptically, and then reached out and took it from him, looking at it and tucking it into her wallet. It read, ‘In case of emergency, contact Cameron, 707-995-9745’.
“I’m sure I’m not going to use it, but thank you, anyway. That’s really kind and thoughtful of you,” she said, smiling at him and taking another drink of her coffee.
“I’m glad to do it. So, Jim tells me you’re a swimmer. Do you compete?”
“Yeah, I do. I also like sea kayaking, diving and sailing. I think I was a fish in another life.” She laughed and he laughed with her.
“Do you think you’ll ever have a family after this?” he asked.
She considered it for a moment.
“Well, I guess so. Right now my priority is my education. Maybe if I meet the right guy someday, and we decide to settle down and have kids, I guess so, but I’m not going to rush out and try to get married and start a family right away like a lot of my friends did.”
Cameron shifted in his seat slightly and bit his lip.
““Are you seeing anyone? Did you have to make any changes for this agreement?”
Delilah shook her head again.
“No, I’m really focused on school, focused on my education, my career, my future… I haven’t made time for relationships. I’m not really into the work it takes to be in a successful relationship.
“I don’t want to spend the time and deal with the hassle, I guess. My work is really important to me, and I wouldn’t want a guy to screw that up and distract me from what I’m working so hard to accomplish.”
Cameron laughed again.
“You sound just like me! The guys are on my case sometimes about why I don’t have a girlfriend, why I don’t date, and I keep telling them… I am focused on my career, focused on my team, my game, and my future. It’s really important to me, and they just don’t seem to really get it. They like the distraction, but for me, my career and my son are the only things I want to work toward and focus on.”
She grinned at him.
“I totally get that.”
They shared a smile of commonality and he finished his coffee and looked around for a moment.
“I guess we better get back upstairs. It’s been a little while. I’m sure Jim is ready to get out of here. Thank you for taking the time to talk with me. I appreciate it.”
“Sure! No problem. It was nice to talk with you.”
He walked her to the elevator and they rode up to the office in silence. When they walked into the board room, Jim turned in his chair and glared at them.
“I said five minutes.”
Cameron smiled and winked.
“Well, sometimes it takes a while to roast coffee beans. Sorry about that, Jim. We’re all set. Let’s get this show on the road, shall we?”
He sat down and Jim finally moved his narrowed gaze from Cameron to Delilah, looking at her a bit more politely.
“If you would please sign on all the indicated areas, we will be all set.”
He watched her as she flipped to each page with a tab on it, and signed her way through the thick stack. When she had finished, she stood up and shook Jim’s hand, then turned and smiled at Cameron.
“Thank you for the coffee and the chat. Good luck with your son!”
He grasped her hand and returned her smile.
“Thank you for my son, and good luck with your endeavors!”
They shared a silent moment of solidarity and understanding, and then she released his hand and walked out of the room.
Chapter Three
Two weeks passed and Jim called Cameron to let him know that the in vitro procedure, which happened to fall on Valentine’s Day, was a success, and Delilah was pregnant and due in the middle of November.
Cameron could not contain his excitement and joy. He invited Aaron, Josh and Mikey over for a celebratory barbecue and they had a great time. He’d bought all of them miniature footballs and “Uncle ___” hats with their names embroidered on them.
They talked about the little guy and discussed all the successes he was likely to have, the life he would probably lead, and all the things they were going to teach him and do with him. Every one of them was elated over the news.
As the spring and summer months passed, Cameron kept the doctor’s reports at the desk in his office at home, looking at the sonograms often and sharing them with his three best friends.
He looked at all of the results of the examinations and kept up on the progress of his son’s growth. It was his greatest joy to focus on football and think of the son he would soon be raising.
He vacationed in Hawaii and went with his friends to Disney World, spending two weeks having a grand time there, thinking often that he’d be taking his son there when he was old enough.
He remodeled his home to include an adjoining room to his own bedroom, to be used as a nursery for his son when he came home. By the end of July, it was all furnished and waiting and Cameron was headed off to training camp for the pre-season.
He was focused with laser beam intensity on his team and his game, helping the rookies and refining his techniques with his teammates. He helped to build a solid team that worked like a well-oiled machine. They ripped through the August preseason, winning all of their games and readying themselves for their regular season in September.
Cameron was at Aaron’s house for his friend’s annual Labor Day cookout with the team when his cell phone rang. It was a number he didn’t recognize.
“Hello?”
“Hello, is Cameron there, please?”
The male voice was unfamiliar to him. “This is Cameron. May I ask who is calling, please?”
“Yes, this is Sergeant Peterson with the San Francisco Police Department. There’s been an accident. I’m sorry to have to call you. Do you know a woman by the name of Delilah Jameson?”
Panic rose up in Cameron and flooded his body.
“Yes, I do, is she alright?”
“She was h
it by a drunk driver while she was in her vehicle. She’s been taken to the hospital. A paper with your name and phone number and a note to call you in case of emergency was paper clipped to her driver’s license in her purse.”
Cameron began to pace and ran his fingers through his hair, his heart thudding wildly against his ribs.
“Yes, thank you for calling me. Is she alright? What happened?”
Sergeant Peterson continued.
“She was at a stoplight, it turned green and as she was going through it, she got hit by a car going the other direction. He was drunk; he ran his red light and hit her. She’s at the emergency room. I don’t know her condition now, but she wasn’t conscious when we got there. I’m very sorry to have to give you the news.”
Cameron felt tears spring to his eyes, and a pain in his chest that felt like it would crack his sternum.
“That’s alright, thank you, sir. I’ll head right over.” He hung up the phone and went to Aaron.
“I have to go,” he told him quietly.
“Delilah is in the hospital. She was in a car wreck; hit by a drunk driver. I don’t mind if you tell Mikey and Josh, but no one else knows about her, so please don’t say anything. I gotta go, now.”
Aaron hugged him tight and nodded.
“We’ll be there as soon as we can.”
Cameron rushed to the hospital and was taken to Delilah’s room right away. The staff that recognized him was kind enough not to approach him and respected his privacy. He stepped into her room and saw her lying in her bed. Her head was bandaged and her left arm was in a cast. He stared at her swollen belly and reached his hand out to touch it, hoping that his son was alright.
He laid his hand tentatively on her stomach, and felt the hardness beneath her skin. Moments after he rested his hand there, he felt a strong kick against his fingertips and his other hand flew to his mouth, trying to hold in the gasp as emotion overwhelmed him and tears spilled out of his eyes.
He rubbed her belly lightly and leaned over to speak to his son. “Hey little guy, don’t be afraid. I’m here. Everything is going to be alright. I’m going to take care of you, don’t you worry at all. I’m here.” He massaged her stomach a little more and was kicked again in response.
A few minutes later, the doctor walked in and looked at him, realizing after a moment who it was that he was looking at, and he couldn’t suppress the grin that spread over his face. Cameron looked at him seriously and spoke quietly.
“This is a very dear friend of mine, doctor. I’m here to look after her. How is she doing? What does she need?”
The doctor cleared his throat and tried to focus on his patient instead of the celebrity he loved so much standing in front of him.
“She’s really banged up. She got a concussion; you see, he hit her on the passenger side of her car, and that sent her into her driver’s side door with some enormous force. It fractured her left arm at the wrist and knocked her out.
“She has three cracked ribs on her left side, and some bruising on her sternum and hips from her seatbelt and the air bag that deployed. The baby is fine, thankfully, but his mother is going to need some close care for a while.
“It’ll be about six to eight weeks before those ribs heal, and there’s nothing we can do for that. She should have her cast off at about that same time as well. We’re going to keep her here for a couple of days for observation, just to make sure she’s alright, and then she should be able to go home.
“Is there someone she lives with that will be able to help her and take care of her? She’ll be in no condition to be on her own. I just want to make sure of that.”
Cameron listened to everything the doctor said and then looked down at Delilah, lying there unconscious, her body bruised and battered, his child growing large in her belly and he felt like his heart had been ripped out of his body. He’d never felt so obligated to anyone in his entire life, and he made a split second decision right where he stood.
“Yes, sir, she has a place to go and someone to take care of her. Thank you for all that you’ve done for her.”
Cameron looked back at the doctor and tried unsuccessfully to conceal some of the emotion on his face, and it was then that the doctor was finally able to see past the image of the football star and realize he was looking at a fellow person who was struggling with trauma.
The doctor nodded his head and clapped him on the shoulder.
“She’s going to be alright. Just take good care of her. That’s the best thing you can do. I’ll draw up some instructions and see if I can arrange for a home nurse for her, if you like.”
Cameron nodded and thanked him again, and the doctor left. He looked down at Delilah again, unable to look away from her. Her face was bruised and the bandages around her didn’t hide it. It made him sick to his stomach.
He pulled out his cell phone and in moments there was a voice at the other end.
“What’s up, Cam?”
“I’m at the hospital, Jim. Delilah was in a car wreck and she’s in bad shape.”
“Oh no! Is she alright? Is the baby alright?”
“The baby is fine, but she’s going to need some regular care. She’s pretty banged up.”
“How did you know she was at the hospital? Why didn’t they call me?”
“Never mind about that. Right now we need to take care of her. I want her set up at my place. Get her out of her apartment and move her into my house. She can stay in the guest room there. We need nurses to come by the house to help her out.” Cameron’s voice cracked and Jim knew he shouldn’t try to argue with him.
Jim sighed heavily.
“Alright. I’ll get it all sorted out. How long do you expect her to stay with you?”
Cameron blinked and thought about her healing time and her due date, which was just a couple of weeks from when she’d have her cast removed and when her ribs should be healed.
“You know what, let’s keep her there until she has the baby, and then she can go.”
Jim paused for a moment and said, “Cam… I don’t think…”
“That’s what we’re doing for her. I owe her at least that much. Besides, I don’t want anything to happen to my son. I’ve spent a lot of time, money and energy on this, and I don’t want to take any chances that anything else can happen.
“This was a close call, much too close, and it’s not going to happen again. She moves in with me when she’s released from the hospital, and she stays until my son is born.”
“Alright. I guess that’s what we’ll do. I’ll arrange for the nurses.”
“Hey, Jim?”
“Yeah, Cam?”
“I want that drunken son of a bitch arrested and put in prison.”
“I’ll make sure it happens.”
“Thanks, Jim. I appreciate it.”
“No problem, Cam. Take it easy.”
Word got around the hospital very quickly that the city’s star quarterback was in one of the rooms, and staff foot traffic increased along the corridor outside of Delilah’s room. It really got busy later that evening when three other big name players from the team walked out of the elevator and crowded their enormous bodies into Delilah’s room.
Mikey, Aaron and Josh stood huddled together near the doorway, staring at the woman they had heard about but not seen. Cameron hugged each of them and thanked them for coming.
Mikey sniffed and wiped a tear from his eye.
“That’s your son… right there in her stomach. Is he going to be okay?”
“Yeah,” Cameron said, walking back over to the side of Delilah’s bed.
“He’s going to be alright. They both are. They’re coming back to my place with me after she’s out of here.”
Josh held out an enormous bouquet of flowers that he’d brought, and Cameron smiled at him and set the arrangement on her window sill.
“That’s really nice, Josh. Thanks, brother.”
Cameron told them about her wreck and her injuries, and explained how long i
t would take her to heal. His friends agreed with him completely that it was right of him to take her on at his house and look after her until she gave birth. They felt it was the only thing to do. They stayed a while longer and then left, hugging him as they headed out.
Aaron stopped for just a moment at the threshold of the door.
“Hey brother, get her home and then get your head in the game.”